Just for clarity's sake, once patch 5.2 is live, Elder Charms of Good Fortune will only apply to Mogu'shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, Terrace of Endless Spring, the Sha of Anger, and Salyis' Warband (Galleon). There will also be a brand new Elder Charm equivalent currently called the Mogu Charm of Fate. MRFs will be used in the new content being released in 5.2 including Throne of Thunder, Nalak the Storm Lord, and Oondasta (ooh, say it again!). They'll still be "purchased" with lesser charms of good fortune though, exactly how the current Lesser Charm to Elder Charm conversion works.

We'll be sure to let you guys know how various currencies (including Conquest and Valor) will work before the release of the patch, so you have some time to plan.

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Opening Cinematic
Blizzard released the Heart of the Swarm Trailer this morning!

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Content Difficulty FeedbackBecause facerolling through a videogame is fun. No it is not.
For some people it is. Some people only want some mindless fun. Something they can do to relax rather than having to set their mind on overcoming a virtual challenge. That's one of the many reasons why invoking majorities in online discussions just doesn't work.

We all have our own reason to do what we do. Some want to test themselves and improve their skill, some just want to relax and have some fun time with their friends. Some don't even know what the concept of hardcore and casual gaming mean, let alone "skill" or "competitiveness" in something they may not even consider a hobby.

If you just want to relieve some stress there is plenty other things to do. If you just want to relieve some stress then why do you go do something ingame that is too hard for you? WHY DON'T YOU JUST STICK TO LFR and let others enjoy the game?
You can't really asky others to not enjoy the game so you can enjoy your own vision of the game. Neither option is right. Sure, there are areas of the game specifically tailored to a particular group of players (Heroic Raids are better fit for the hardcore crowd), but that shouldn't stop you from trying something different and find out if it's fun or not for you.

And YES it are the unskilled losers who ask for nerfs. Deal with it.

This game is not stressfull, it's not rocketscience, it's piss easy. But for the 'majority' it is stressfull to do heroic raids or challenge modes or even normal mode? I wonder what is challenging in your real life if WoW is already too hard for you.
There you go, the "unskilled losers" ask for nerfs. That's a not very nice way of putting an etiquette over a group of players that may have difficulties overcoming a challenge in the game. There's no real reason why you should go out of your way to also say that then real life for those players must be incredibly difficult. We get it, you consider yourself a very skilled player in World of Warcraft, that's great.

But in a game with as many players as World of Warcraft has, you have to realize that people come from very different backgrounds, some have been playing games for years, some are just starting to discover this world... Therefore, they have different expectations of how they would like to enjoy the content.

Of course, it may look selfish to ask for nerfs if you can overcome the content at its current difficulty, but, isn't it equally selfish to deny others content just because they don't have your skill?

That's what LFR was for. It's what Blizzard has said LFR was for right from the start, yet now you still see a need to make normal modes easier.
Since you mention normal difficulty, I think it's a good opportunity to mention this blog article by Watcher where he explains how developers tune the raid encounters: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/blog/706...er_-17_01_2013

I may be wrong but I find it incredibly hard to imagine that there is a boss in the game that is absolutely insurmountable to even a casual player.
If you give that person an infinite amount of time (and will) they'll probably overcome the encounter at some point, sure. But what actually happens is that, rather than keep at it, most players stop trying at some point out of frustration.

The will to persevere and continue battling a foe that feels like an unavoidable obstacle is actually not as common as you may think among gamers (otherwise, why would we even have difficulty settings in most games anyways?)

Then why bother with a game based on progression and challenge? Surely you'd be more at home playing Second Life.
There are several scales of challenge (and progression). On this game you can even progress solely on PVP or PVE if you so wish. So, this is not really an argument. Everyone knows at which pace they want to play the game, and if they don't know, they'll eventually find out as they encounter things that annoy them and things that don't.

Invoking an unquantitive "some" doesn't make your argument any more valid than his. The problem with you guys at Blizzard nowadays is that rather than having a philosophy / image of a direction you want to take the game in, you buckle in when 20 people throw up a moany post on the forums. You can't develop a game based on the whims of a few, as you said, but it's what you do.
The developers get their information from plenty of sources, it's certainly not just becase "20 people throw up a moany post on the forums". Otherwise, based just on the posts you can find on this forum, you'd see game design change from one extreme to the other with every single patch, which is not really the case (even when the developers change the direction on which they're taking the game).

why nerf (not to be mixed with tweaks and hotfixes) harder content that people enter to seek challenges and when they hit wall they do normal modes to gain better gear and experience.
As I mentioned on my previous post, the blog post I linked explains the reasoning the developers use to adjust certain fights.

But you can huh? Or where you trolling when you said this? :

"You have two talent specializations. Why not have one for DPS? Even if it's a different healing spec, do you really need it at every single moment of the day? It's your choice to go with two healing specs, and that obviously comes with a downside (just as a tank that decides to go with two different tanking specs and argues his DPS is low on that content).

Proceeding to argue that because you run with a dual healing spec there's no content you can do is not going to get you very far because the answer is simple: use a DPS spec for that content."
There's quite a difference between not being able to do (defeat) something and refusing to use the tools the game offers to do a certain piece of content. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Classes
Maybe it's time for more than two specs? (Source)Why have trispec? Wouldn't it be a lot better to be able to save keybind/action bar layouts and remove dual spec.
Aren't those two models pretty much the same thing? (Source)

Healthstones too need an alternative. Maybe Mage? Health biscuits?
We want different classes to have some unique abilities. We don't think many raids get cancelled for want of healthstones. (Source)

I have 100 spell power. +10% SP procs > 110SP now. A different +10%SP procs. Now I have 120 or 121?
Depends entirely on how the spells are built. Some are designed to only look at unbuffed stats. (Source)

you don't think halo might be slightly unfair to a stealth class? make it not do dmg to stealth. lol 30 yrd radiu
Yes, we actually do. That wasn't the intent of Halo. The question is where do you cut off AE stealth breaking? (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Any reason DKs are the only class without a damaging level 90 talent option?
When they provided DPS, they became all about using that ability on CD, not the benefits the talents were designed to impart. (Source)

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)If you want mages to play the spec they want. Why have the devs made fire mage so poor on single target dps? any changes inc?
All the raiding mages were Fire BC Fire was best in every situation. Now we see more Frost and Arcane, but still lots of Fire. (Source)

When have you ever told us the design intent of Arcane? We've been begging you to tell us for expansions now.
Feel like we've discussed it a lot. Try to use AB without running OOM. It's a nuker that uses a healer resource model. (Source)and how exactly is scorch weaving circumventing THAT stated design concept?!
Scorch was free in 5.1 so it felt mandatory and allowed more AB stacks, which made Arcane damage too high. (Source)

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Combo Breaker on the PTR feels a little low at 12%. Is this number set in stone? Or is this low to compensate for new Mastery?
It's not set in stone. There are a lot of monk changes to try out and iterate on. (Source)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Will you compensate the loss from Blade Flurry (Combat rogues) somehow? There are still people who prefer combat over sub
We buffed Combat single target to make them more competitive with Assassination. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)as projected, in pvp, second wind is ticking at 2,000 health a second.LOL want warrs in pvp you say? then you fail, hard.
Warrior success in PvP shouldn't hinge on a single mandatory talent. (Source)you may have caused 1 warrior out there to actually try the other 2 talents on that tier in MOP. quit ur job.
What you are saying then is that Second Wind is still too powerful compared to the others? (Source)Good luck with Second Wind. My prediction: By the end of 2013, it will still be picked by either 100% or 0%.
We think we can get it to a place where the passive benefit is balanced between the active healing of the other two. (Source)Subtractive balancing is bad imo. You should be buffing the other two options not giving us 3 shitty ones.
Buffing is generally preferable. But keep in mind part of the problem is players feel they can't counter warrior healing. (Source)

PvEalso is it possible that challenge modes flopped because rewards for anything but gold are bad?
Why do you conclude they flopped? We're pretty happy with them... (Source)

Is game design more focused on ranged dps? PVP arena starts and Raid mechanics tend to favor RDPS over melee dps. Intended?
There are raid mechanics that favor range and those that favor melee. Any recent examples? (Source)

Strongly prefer 7x/wk. Can't play weekdays much, like to grind on weekends. Its was fun for me in cata
You can still do that. The runs after the first still give valor. It's not the most efficient way possible, but totally works. (Source) Look at it this way. I got few hours per week to play & not every day. 7x/wk means I get full valor. Other not.
I can appreciate that. The current model is intended to be a compromise between folks who want long sessions vs. many sessions. (Source)7 per week allows you both to do them on one day or on 7 days. The current implementation doesnt (without dr on vp)
But the current one lets you do 20 a week if you really want to. (Source)you traded the one efficient way in cata for the one efficient way here. Don't pretend you're more diverse.
Disagree. The big difference in the previous two systems is after X you got *no* valor. Very hard to play other ways. (Source)

Do you honestly think players want to do 20 per week? RT But the current one lets you do 20 a week if you really wa
How many should you do a week? (As an aside, more did 1/day than 7/ week.) (Source)

it's something only HC raiders (a minority of the raiders) would say, or someone with more time than skill.
HC raiders tend to do content anyway. It's more casual raiders who drop out if rewards and prestige are lacking. (Source)so am i right in asumming you are designing content for a slim minority and saying screw the rest of yall?
How did you get that from what I said? I said we tend to see players give up when their accomplishments are too easily outdated. (Source)You seriously want players to have to grind 5.0 content before running 5.2?
Is it fair to players who played in 5.0 if they aren't ahead of those who did not? (I don't think we ever said "grind.") (Source)

I'd like to see the numbers/proof of this "the less hardcore raiders quit when we provide catch up stuff" crap.
You don't see it all the time? Think about those players who get lazy when a tier is near done. It's like that but more so. (Source)

PvPJustify why there are no nerfs on hunters & shadow priests in 5.2 please?
Assuming you mean PvP, we're not hearing much on hunters since Stampede fix. Shadow is a concern. Worried they're under the radar. (Source)

You mentioned trivialising accomplishments in PvP before, but the players accomplishments are rating not gear surely?
We think it's a problem in PvP too. Players with big accomplishments should be able to show them off. That's part of the reward. (Source)

I agree with that statement but THIS game killed skill requirements. Gear > Skill. In Vanilla, 2 lvl 50s >1 lvl 60.
The same is true of PvP. The best players can swap mains and still achieve gladiator. That's skill. (Source)
Disagree. Look how quickly the best guilds can clear content. Other guilds can't do it with full gear and huge bonuses. (Source)

I remember someone saying wanted to remove the barrier for pve gear to get into pvp. pve gear now only good for instance stuff
PvE gear has higher ilevels than PvP gear. It just lacks two important stats. It's fine for getting you into PvP. (Source)

dislike attitude but I like the discussion. What do you balance arena on? High, low, or average players?
We try to balance for all. Different problems occur at lower brackets. Things that require skill to counter become OP. (Source)

The Elder Scrolls Online Trailer
Starcraft II wasn't the only game to release a trailer today. The new Elder Scrolls MMO also released one to go with their open beta signup.

Be sure to check out our TESO Wiki for all known information on the races and places of Tamriel and take a look at our Megathread for more information on the game.

New feature of MoP will probably be you get to choose what loot you get from a boss. Or the boss drops all of the loot in his loot table. Or everyone gets a piece of loot. Or you log in ever week and get a random piece of loot from your boss of choice.

The cinematic was really pretty, to bad the ruined it with shitty shaky cam effect.

Srs does anyone like the shaky screen crap?

It's shaky so it's harder to notice lower quality rendering in the motions of the CGI. It's nothing new. It's luck for them that they (everyone who makes CGI) can pass it off as a it being in the "heat of the moment" thing, and some people like that. Regardless, I think it was well done, and I'll stay on the lookout for this.

The amount of stupid in the responses they have to respond to is so high...
"DONT NERF NORMAL BECAUSE CASUALS ARE BAD". If you are so good, why do you care? You're doing heroic anyway, and they probably won't nerf that. And even if they will, you'd be long done with them? How does it harm you in any way?

I don't find the raid encounters hard. But I only raid 2 evenings a week now for a total of 7 hours. And I raid with people who don't have all the time in the world to master their class anymore. This in itself is the larger challenge than the bossfights or mechanics. And yes, I have played since Molten Core and I have also raided from 2 to 7 evenings a week.